OldTimeHockey
Active member
So what now? Who do you start him against? Saturday/Sunday is your next back to back. Does he come back up and sit on the bench for the next two games and then face Detroit on Sunday?
2023-24 Toronto Maple Leafs General Discussion
- Thread starter herman
- Start date
This isn't very surprisingly at all after not giving Hildeby a game on the back to back, or even an incredibly favourable match-up vs. the Sharks back-up goalie yesterday. If they didn't feel comfortable giving him one of those games there was zero chance they were playing him against Detroit on Sunday. I would have expected the call-up to come on Friday though, just to save a couple days on the 30-day waivers counter.
Guilt Trip
Active member
I don't think the 30 days means much in regards to Sammy. If he needs to go on waivers again hes essentially done as a Leaf. Now if he gets his act together it looks like we'll be carrying 3 goalies because no way Jones is clearing next time and don't see them risking hin getting taken.CarltonTheBear said:
Guilt Trip
Active member
They play FridayKaberle15 said:
Highlander
Active member
I still think the Leafs suffer from old age brain cramps and can see them running out Sammy again. WTF
"Give Beast a Chance"
"Give Beast a Chance"
cw said:
Still 23 with Hildeby being sent down.
edit: roster situation only gets too crowded once Reaves comes off the IR, which should be soon-ish as he's been skating with the team for a bit now. At that point one of Holmberg or Robertson likely get sent down, or one of Lagesson or Timmins gets waived/sent down.
Peter D.
Moderator
CarltonTheBear said:
Just to further on this -- I know they are neck and neck, but Marner is just as likely to become the Leafs all-time leading point getter as Matthews is. 598 to 588 in favour of Marner, who has played 27 more games. Mats is at 987, a number both will smash assuming they are here for the majority or entirety of their careers.
caveman said:
https://twitter.com/dalter/status/1745129035422720045
CarltonTheBear said:
That's right. Thanks.
I'd removed Hildeby. I appear to have wrongly counted Reaves who, like Woll, is still on IR - even though he's back skating with the team.
They can't waive Jones. He'll never clear. They be crazy to trade him right now.
When Woll returns, what are they going to do with 3 goalies? Showcase Samsonov for trading?
If I'm in Samsonov's camp, they could argue "if the Leafs played like they have the last five or so games in front of Samsonov, we'd be having a different conversation today."
Samsonov seemed like the Leafs biggest fan. He thought the world of his team. He seemed to love playing in Toronto. He also seems like a very nice, likable guy. I have wondered since the first day the Leafs started playing better defensively, after Samsonov was waived, if some of it was founded on the team feeling like they let the guy down some. Maybe the thinking is, if they put him back in, the team will bust their butts to play well for him defensively.
Average save% in the NHL this year is around .903 which is also Samsonov's career average. If they get him back to that or better, they're getting above average backup goaltending. Or they can flip him ...
cw said:
There's two more back to backs in the month, so Samsonov will likely get at least 2 games before Woll returns. He'd have to be very, very good in both of those both from a results standpoint and a technical/eye test standpoint to stay on the roster in February. I'm not sure I see a turnaround like that happening yet but if it does at least the team does have the cap space to run with 3 goalies at the moment.
cw said:
https://twitter.com/JFreshHockey/status/1745112221649166539
I'm a little skeptical about those numbers but I do think the "Samsonov was just playing behind bad defence" excuse isn't warranted here at all in any way shape or form. The Leafs are surely not perfect defensively and had some struggles but Joseph Woll, a 25-year old rookie, played behind the exact same team/defence and was able to have a .916 save percentage, well above the league average and well, well, well above Samsonov's .862 number. It clearly couldn't have been about defence that much if a non-established goalie like Woll was able to perform like that in the same conditions. Samsonov needs to own his performance here.
CarltonTheBear said:
For clarity, there is no way that I ever believed an .862 save % is all on the team.
Samsonov owns a bunch of that. Period. See the game tying goal in the last Columbus game.
I also know what my eyes saw. For example, in the early games of the season, they hung him out a number of times. Eventually, that erodes confidence. He's an emotional goalie. He seemed to throw everything out the window trying to stop the bleeding - resorting back to his swimming for example. I strongly suspect the poor team defense in front of him contributed to a snowballing of the problem.
It cost the team a popular member of their 'family' and I suspect they got more serious about team defense reacting to that. That's my theory. Time will tell.
Having said that, the unpredictability or lack of reliability in today's NHL goaltending still confounds me some. There's probably some of that in there too.
